Many thanks to Vasiliy Kuznetsov for making great armwrestling videos and for sending this one to XSportNews. This video is special because Vasiliy made English subtitles, which should load automatically. I posted the transcript from youtube first, scroll down to watch the video.

0:00 What kind of miracle is Devon Larratt looking for,
0:02 challenging Denis Cyplenkov?
0:05 In my opinion, Cyplenkov is now the strongest in the world.
0:08 I think that Devon has no chance
0:13 What is the secret of the strength of the Bulgarian phenomenon Sacho Andreev?
0:17 I have seen his fights
0:20 and I have a feeling that he knows neither the pain nor the fear.
0:23 And what happened to Dmitry “Optimus Prime” Trubin
0:27 He became bigger.
0:30 And much bigger
0:32 There are so many important issues in the world of arm wrestling,
0:36 and today we are trying to find the answers to all of them.
0:40 That’s why, according to the old good tradition,
0:43 we will go to the club of LETI (Saint-Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI”),
0:46 where Dzambolat Tsoriev usually trains
0:47 Why do you train shoulders? Do you want to go men’s physique?
0:49 What does it mean, “Why?”, Vasiliy?
0:51 One must be not only with thick arms, but with thick shoulders also!
0:57 But in order to make this episode truly objective,
1:00 we’ll ask a couple of difficult questions our overseas comrades
1:06 Специально для “Железного рейтинга”
1:10 Люблю вас, ребята!
1:16 Advertising information
2:13 Our subscribers ask, how are you doing?
2:15 Everything is cool,
2:17 how are they?
2:20 They’ll see you and then will be all right!
2:23 Really?
2:26 Then you should come here more often. Let them all be OK.
2:30 Here, in LETI, atmosphere is always friendly, but working.
2:34 Everyone does his own thing.
2:38 Everyone is training his main victorious weapon …
3:01 OK, now Dzambolat will warm up a bit and we will start shooting our newscast,
3:07 because when he’s calm, he is very silent.
3:11 And after warm-up, he can speak on any topic.
3:16 Am I right, Dzambolat?
3:17 You bet!
3:19 I told you. I know him well.
3:21 If Dzambolat is ready for talk about anything,
3:25 let’s start our newcast!
3:28 In the 5th place
3:32 we’ll talk about the Siberian truck driver Vitaly Laletin,
3:37 who is currently preparing for the upcoming World Cup in Hungary in September.
3:42 As the “Iron Rating” understood,
3:44 Vitaly prepares in a regular regime:
3:47 he alternates gym’s trainings with outdoor trainings.
3:55 It is ready
3:56 As we know, more often Vitaliy trains in the out-of-doors
4:01 or at the wheel of his truck,
4:02 the more stronger he becomes.
4:04 So, in Hungary, he is able to become 6 times world champion…
4:09 Or maybe not?
4:11 Do you watch his last fight with Sergey Bogoslovov?
4:15 Do you watch this fight?
4:17 Bogoslovo is 90-kg athlete, but he managed to do such things,
4:20 which other heavy-weight athletes didn’t.
4:24 Dzambolat is right,
4:25 Laletin’s talent and trainings, which were enough to impress the world of armwrestling yesterday,
4:30 just couldn’t be enough for today…
4:33 He is able to surprise us.
4:35 And we have seen it at the last Nemiroff championship.
4:38 But if we are talking about world’s top of armwrestling
4:43 in the heavyweight category,
4:44 he must work hard.
4:46 Whether he wants it or not, thinks so or not,
4:49 it does not matter.
4:51 He will have to do it!
4:52 I don’t speak about gaining muscle mass, big biceps etc.
4:57 But he need to increase the strength in the angles.
5:03 For fans of armwrestling this is not enough
5:05 to see Vitaly’s victories just at championships of Europe and world.
5:07 We want fights against
5:08 Michael Todd, Dave Chaffee, Andrey Pushkar
5:12 and Denis Cyplenkov.
5:14 But Vitaly should become stronger and stronger for this.
5:17 And during the process of this necessary upgrade,
5:20 Vitaliy could take a pattern by the hero of our next footage.
5:27 In the 4th plaсe of our rating…
5:31 We try to investigate, what happened to Dmitry Trubin?
5:36 I remember, when Toddzilla saw
5:38 how Dmitry competed at Zloty Tur, he exclaimed:
5:52 It’s interesting, what would say Todd about
5:55 actual shape of Trubin?
5:57 Recently I have seen him at “Iron Rating channel”
6:00 and yes, he is much bigger than before.
6:04 And he became much more bigger.
6:06 Dzambolat is right.
6:08 Weigh scales under Russian Optimus Prime
6:09 shows magnific 138 kg (304 lbs)
6:14 But it seems that Dmitry has not just become much bigger…
6:17 It seems that the Optimus Prime,
6:20 whom we all knew before,
6:21 was made some secret re-flash.
6:25 Hello, my dear friends.
6:27 This video I make special for “Iron Rating channel”.
6:29 Now I prepare to compete
6:32 at Cup of Asia and Worlds championship.
6:35 I train very hard. One of my goal is to gain weight.
6:38 I do basic exercises
6:40 and specific armwrestling exercises.
6:42 I want to make a perfect shape
6:45 Hope, you’ll see the new-look of Optimus Prime,
6:52 cause I’m going to gain weight to 145 kg (319 lbs),
6:56 to dry 5 kg (11 lbs) water weight
6:59 and show 140 kg (308 lbs) at the stage.
7:03 It is time to go to the next level at my competitive career.
7:09 It’s scary to imagine
7:10 what this advanced Autobot, weighing 140 kg,
7:14 is capable of.
7:17 I won’t be wrong
7:19 if I say that everyone discusses Dmitry Trubin now.
7:21 He ignores his haters.
7:28 If he lost, he is like
7:30 “OK, I should go further, train hard.
7:32 I will improve and win next time.”
7:36 He’s cool as a cucumber, keeps his eyes on the prize and does his stuff.
7:40 The most interesting thing here is
7:42 that due to the latest events in WAL,
7:45 there appear many champions,
7:48 who strive for victory and stand in the way of Dmitry!
7:51 And that’s what we discuss next.
7:57 In the 3th place…
8:00 we decided to tell you about Michael “Monster” Todd.
8:03 Recently, his wife Rebecca,
8:06 made a post in her account,
8:07 where he calls out Andrey Pushkar,
8:11 the athlete who owns the championship belt of PAL
8:15 in the heavyweight category.
8:17 But isn’it too ambitious?
8:21 I don’t think that.
8:24 He uses a specific technique
8:27 and will be a strong opponent for anyone else.
8:30 I don’t want to offend Denis Cyplenkov,
8:33 Andrey Pushkar or Dmitry Trubin.
8:38 But Todd will be a strong opponent for any of them.
8:42 He has never been an easy rival.
8:45 But is Todd really so tough?
8:48 Frankly speaking,
8:51 his recent victory in WAL finals left a lot of questions,
8:54 because he was on the brink of defeat in each duel.
8:58 Yes, I was surprised about it, too.
9:00 He fought everyone in the same way,
9:03 but no one tried to fight with him in a different one.
9:05 I have never fought with him,
9:07 so I can’t be sure for 100%.
9:09 I suppose, it is quite hard even to change the fighting style with him.
9:14 He has very specific technique.
9:16 Maybe, I didn’t see everything,
9:18 but I didn’t notice even a try to make it differ.
9:23 He (Todd) did everything he want
9:27 and pressed everyone to achieve the victory.
9:33 But Denis Cyplenkov and Dmitry Trubin showed everyone
9:38 how to deal with Monster.
9:41 The best technique against Todd is to grasp the triceps!
9:46 But Larrat is going to assure us,
9:48 that we underestimate Monster.
9:51 Yes, Michael Todd is the best of all we have to offer.
9:56 You know… Michael Todd is incredibly, incredibly difficult to beat.
10:03 King’s move arm wrestling is advanced arm wrestling, OK?
10:06 You either accept it or get beat by it, OK?
10:11 Michael Todd stops the match, he comes to you with a lot of different angles.
10:19 It is hard to dispute with Devon Larratt,
10:21 but we’re thinking that it is not everything so optimistic in this story…
10:26 Let’s imagine Todd with his technique
10:28 in Russia with our judges and rules.
10:33 Dzambolat, what do you think about Todd’s possible results?
10:36 He won’t get even at top-10.
10:39 Because of very specific style of fighting.
10:42 And we have the same point of view.
10:43 For example, let’s remember
10:45 how Todd competed at the Zloty Tur in Poland.
10:47 But besides all our speaking,
10:52 all of our experts said
10:54 that The Monster would be the winner at the fight with Andrey Pushkar.
10:58 Pushkar can “stick in”.
11:00 He is powerful and he is good at start.
11:06 But Todd showed, that there were a lot of strong sportsmen,
11:11 who were kept down by him
11:13 and then pulled out from almost an unrealistic position.
11:22 I think Andrey is strong.
11:24 Andrey Pushkar is the best blaster in the world,
11:28 I don’t think will be many people who argue that.
11:31 But… Has Andrey’s game progressed enough
11:35 that he can drill Michael every time and if the match does stop,
11:40 can he make adjustments to carry on to the finish, those are big questions.
11:45 And I’m gonna say… Michael Todd for the win.
11:49 However, all we know how ends the fights,
11:53 which Pushkar is predicted to be defeated.
11:56 Such fight is a challenge.
11:58 I bet on Dmitry Trubin when he had a match with Pushkar,
12:03 but Pushkar was prepared so good,
12:05 that Dmitry, despite all his trainings, could not do anything.
12:10 Definitely we can say only one thing:
12:12 it will be really exciting fight.
12:16 But no less than fight “Todd vs Pushkar”,
12:20 we want to see another armfight “Pushkar vs Dmitry Trubin”
12:24 and we want totest Vitaliy Laletin’s abilitities on Monster.
12:28 But our experts assured us
12:31 that there is not only heavyweight arm wrestling.
12:35 They offered a new hero –
12:37 the Bulgarian child prodigy Sasho Andreev…
12:40 But we’ll talk about him a little bit later.
12:42 Now let’s go back to the gym in LETI
12:48 and learn a few secrets of a champion’s training.
12:51 This is probably the most common exercise in arm wrestling.
12:55 All of arm wrestlers perform it.
12:58 So there is no secret.
13:00 This is the exercise on the biceps, but only closer to the fight.
13:04 This is a valued position, in a manner of speaking.
13:27 Most athletes perform this exercise with dumbbells
13:30 or with some other weights.
13:34 Honestly speaking, I’m just too lazy to invent something else –
13:37 it’s much more convenient to do it through the block.
13:50 Are the feelings different?
13:53 No, they are the same.
13:56 Most likely, I do this exercise at the table
13:59 because it was always my first in training.
14:07 And you understand it…
14:08 Yes, I understand this exercise.
14:12 First of all, fingers work when we fight.
14:15 They do not “break” our brush.
14:18 And when we fight at the table, our fingers are weaken firstly.
14:24 If fingers are tightly compressed, then the brush can not be broken.
14:27 But when your fingers are squeezed, you can break everything.
14:30 And in this exercise, the main emphasis is
14:33 on fingers and grip training.
14:35 So does the movement start with the fingertips?
14:36 Yes, most directly.
14:44 Guys from LETI does not invent something you.
14:48 And their trainings are the same as a year or two years ago.
14:56 You can not get a spoon out of your hands.
14:58 What?
14:58 Spoon, I say, you can not get it out of your hands.
15:01 Although … Sometimes there is some new adaptation in their basement.
15:07 Vitaly and I were just discussing
15:09 that the main feature of this exercise is that the pressure goes through the index fingers.
15:13 It depends on how you take the handle here.
15:15 You can turn the handle under the little finger.
15:19 I just tried to do it.
15:20 I remember these exercises from the time
15:24 when I just started to train and it was a long time ago.
15:59 What do you feel?
16:00 Feelings … I feel giddy …
16:04 It’s all right, only I feel giddy.
16:12 This is a useful and very good exercise.
16:14 Do you advise it for all arm wrestlers?
16:16 Yes. And I will do this exercise.
16:19 How effective and useful is this new exercise, the next start will show.
16:25 And we return to the finalists of our rating.
16:30 In the 2nd place …
16:34 we will tell you about the highly anticipated fight in light heavyweight.
16:39 This is the time for, I would say, is a significant fight
16:43 between two powerful “hookers” –
16:45 Khadzhimurat Zoloyev and
16:47 the crazier Sacho Andreev from Bulgaria.
16:53 Khadzhimurat Zoloev does not need a presentation.
16:56 This Ossetian arm wrestler has long been
16:58 in the topof the strongest middleweights of the planet
17:01 and he is one of the main offenders of heavyweights.
17:05 But in his hobby to win big guys,
17:08 now he has a serious competitor –
17:11 the Bulgarian athlete Sasho Andreev.
17:14 But why is he unique?
17:16 I have seen recently how he fights …
17:18 There is the impression that Sacho knows neither pain nor fear.
17:21 Devon Larratt described this guy at his Facebook .
17:25 by just one word – “killer”
17:28 Sacho Andreev truly break into world of arm wrestling in 2014,
17:32 when he was 18 years old and
17:34 he won the youth championship of the world at first,
17:37 and then he picked to pieces the adult categories.
17:41 In 2014 I saw him either at the World Championships,
17:44 or at the European Championships.
17:45 He is very strong by nature. Genetically gifted guy.
17:48 When I fight with hook, I feel pain everytime here and there.
17:52 And Sacho looks like he has no pain threshold,
17:57 or he has very strong naturally ligaments.
18:00 It seems to me that he did not even train his ligaments to become so strong.
18:05 What else can we tell about him?
18:08 In addition to being young and strong, he loves motorcycles!
18:11 Information about Sacho on the Internet is not enough.
18:13 But we know the main thing about him:
18:15 Sacho, without hesitation for the titles of rivals and the difference in weight,
18:20 confidently defeats the strongest arm wrestlers of the planet.
18:23 Eugene Prudnik was able to force his style to Sasho,
18:27 “knocked out” his brush and took a good position.
18:32 However, all of this did not help him to bring the match to a victorious result.
18:37 Sacho endured all, usually does, and quietly defeated Eugene.
18:44 And I’m not afraid of this word,
18:46 Eugene is one of the strongest hooker of the planet.
18:51 At the same championship,
18:53 where Sacho defeated Prudnik,
18:54 Khadzhimurat Zoloev competed too.
18:56 Hadzhimurat fought at that European Championship
18:59 in the weight category of 85 kilograms.
19:01 He did not meet with Sacho for fight.
19:03 Now is the moment, when this fight will be interesting to see.
19:08 Do I need to tell who would I bet on?
19:10 And what will be the result of this fight?
19:15 With all due respect to Hadzhimurat…
19:19 Sacho stops at nothing recently…
19:22 Probably, if there is a draw,
19:26 it will be a strong-willed draw from Khadzhimurat.
19:30 Still, I prefer Sacho Andreev.
19:34 But speaking of the Bulgarian phenomenom,
19:36 we want to hope that his irrepressible desire to win,
19:41 considering his very dangerous competition style,
19:43 will not lead to serious injury.
19:46 Especially regarding to his love
19:48 to fight with heavyweights
19:50 I am bad as analyst,
19:52 but I think he will come up to some level
19:57 and then it will play a cruel joke with him.
19:59 He should stay in his weight category.
20:01 Most likely this is the weight category from 80 to 90 kg.
20:03 And he must fight at this category and doesn’t go anywhere.
20:06 Although, he can once a year, just for fun,
20:08 compete in overall category.
20:10 But he does not need to change the category every year,
20:12 as he does now.
20:13 It can play a cruel joke with him.
20:17 My words are confirmed by a large number of athletes with similar stories.
20:21 We came to the first place,
20:25 which Devon Larratt and Denis Сyplenkov
20:26 confidently divided between each other.
20:29 A possible armfight between them is discussed on both sides of the ocean.
20:34 First of all, I can say that it will be interesting.
20:37 If this happens, it will be the event of the year.
20:42 Despite Larratt’s recent victory in the WAL League final,
20:46 most experts are confident
20:48 that if Denis is in good shape, he will win.
20:53 I do not know what condition Denis is in now.
20:55 I saw only Devon and he weighed 100 kilograms.
20:59 And if Denis is in good physical shape, then,
21:04 I think, Devon has no chance.
21:06 In my opinion, Сyplenkov has no equal in fight.
21:11 He can get tired, his hands can burst with lactic acid …
21:14 But in his optimal form, he is now the strongest in the world.
21:20 It is hardly possible today to find the man stronger than Denis Cyplenkov.
21:26 Just think about his record in a pure biceps curl
21:29 with 113 kilograms.
21:31 But on the other hand, endurance and technique are
21:34 on the side of Larratt.
21:35 If Larratt is now in good shape, Denis will have problems.
21:39 Denis should prepare seriously for this fight.
21:43 And do not let Larratt do a toproll.
21:48 Here appears an interesting question,
21:51 what is more important in the arm —
21:53 technique or strength?
21:55 Only strength.
21:56 If you train correctly and do exercises
22:00 which help to improve the quality of the fight,
22:03 then only the strength will secure a victory.
22:04 Because technique depends on only your strength.
22:07 But in this case,
22:08 we are confident of the victory of the Russian arm wrestler.
22:12 Although it’s a bit tricky, and makes us to worry about Denis.
22:18 Unlike Larratt, he rarely competes
22:22 and it can play a cruel joke with him.
22:26 For example, when Denis fought against Michael Todd,
22:28 it was noticeable
22:29 that excessive excitement almost deprived Denis of victory.
22:32 You mean that Denis needs to warm up
22:35 before this fight a weaker opponent.
22:37 But who then? Of course, it sounds like a good idea.
22:42 But who?
22:47 I just do not see whom to fight him. Pushkar?
22:53 But fighting with Andrew is a difficult task.
22:56 I would even say that this is even a more difficult task.
22:59 If I were his coach and knew his strengths…
23:03 For me, the athlete’s degree of preparation is his strengths.
23:07 Numbers, not self-awareness.
23:13 And if I knew that he was in his optimal shape,
23:18 I could say that he should immediately agree to a fight against Larratt.
23:20 Everything is clear with Denis.
23:24 But what can the Canadian arm wrestler put against the Russian Hulk?
23:28 Still, Devon Larratt weighs 100 kilograms
23:30 against Denis Tsyplenkov’s 140 kilograms
23:32 and it does not look very intimidating.
23:35 I’ll say it again, I’m already huge, OK.
23:38 I am 230 pounds (104 kg) of pure arm wrestler, OK?
23:46 So, I mean, I was 235 when I pulled Pushkar.
23:50 I don’t know if I have to be much heavier, I just have to be healthfully.
23:53 And my right arm right now is 100% healthfully.
23:59 Surgery was like 4 years ago, I went through the whole process of rebuilding.
24:04 My right arm is as strong as it ever been. So…
24:09 So, I’m ready. I’m ready.
24:11 I’m ready to pull, I’m ready to win.
24:15 I am ready to reclaim my spot in the open world of arm wrestling
24:23 I see that Devon is extremely interested.
24:26 He really turns on the heat.
24:28 And he gets a great deal of pleasure from it.
24:30 And he is obsessed with himself.
24:32 It’s cool when the man is confident in himself so much!
24:37 Because there is a saying
24:39 “miracles happen where they are believed the most”
24:42 As we see, Larratt is very serious
24:45 and 200% confident in his abilities.
24:48 Now it remains to understand
24:49 how our Denis is ready for this fight.
24:52 So, I don’t know exactly, how Denis is doing whether his health.
24:57 I don’t know how ready he is but when he…
25:02 Denis, when you get your stuff, let’s do it!
25:06 Let’s do this.
25:09 Let’s have this match that we both been waiting for about 6 years.
25:13 Let’s figure out. Let’s figure out, who the stronger arm wrestler is.
25:21 Cause I’m pretty sure… I’m pretty sure it’s me.
25:27 As you can see,
25:29 there are a lot of excellent fights in the nearest future,
25:31 some of which can take place very soon,
25:35 at the World Championships WAF in September in Hungary
25:38 and the international tournament Zloty Tur in November in Poland.
25:42 By the way, maybe,
25:43 we will watch the show “Vendetta All Stars” as part of the Zloty tur.
25:47 And on that intriguing note we are finishing our newscast.
25:51 Do not forget to share this video with your friends!
25:55 And we say goodbye to you! See you next time!